root

Verizon is rolling out a rather small update for the Samsung Galaxy S5. This maintenance update, which doesn't upgrade the Android 4.4.2 version to anything more recent, brings a mixed bag of useful fixes and improvements. However, for some power users, it might be more trouble than it's worth.

If you have been using IOroot and TowelRoot to root your LG G3, check out the new PurpleDrake rooting tool on XDA forum. Created by IOMonster, jcase and autoprime, PurpleDrake supports most of the LG G3 variants on T-Mobile (D851), AT&T (D850), international model (D855) and more!

We've said it before. For better or worse, one of the things that separates Android from iOS is the fact that we can browse our devices like we do our computers, at least to a certain extent. File managers give users power, but not all yield those powers equally, especially when it comes to superuser powers, otherwise known as "root". Let's take a peek at the current choices of file managers and see how they fare when pitted against one another.

If you've wanted to experience the new Material design in Android L that almost everyone is talking about, this new Android L theme package might be for you. The only catch to this almost easy to install theme is that you need to have the Xposed Framework installed, which means you need to have a rooted device.

After CyanogenMod published its blog post about its plans for Android L support, Xposed Framework creator rovo89 is making a similar appeal to the Android community for a bit of objective analysis and a lot of patience. The summary of the situation is that Android L is still a fast-moving target that it isn't practical to work on polishing Xposed for it. The developer would rather release a version that works well a bit later, rather than one that is too early but barely functions.

With a new device, most of us will not think of installing a memory or RAM booster off the bat. In fact, online surveys say that most Android users install these kinds of apps through in-app advertisements and similar pushes. And most users install these apps on the generic suggestion that using them would “speed up” their Android devices. But do they really work?

While the announcement of Android L has brought, or at least teased, several improvements for the platform, there are those that look at the next Android release with a sense of foreboding. Aside from Google potentially exercising more control over the OS' user interface direction, there are also fears about rooting becoming extremely difficult. Fortunately, SuperSU developer Chainfire's post-I/O report paints a less bleak picture.

We told you that the Android L Developer Preview would be picked clean of its standout features, and what do you know, here’s another one. Very conspicuous in that Google I/O keynote for Android L was a new slide-down notification area, this feature apparently called “Heads-up notifications.” You will be happy to know that this is now available for non-rooted devices in APK format.

Well that was fast. The Android “L” test firmware – a developer preview for the Android version that was revealed at the Google I/O keynote and the one that we will all probably get the full version by later this year – was released for the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 devices yesterday. And today, root access is delivered by the good folks at XDA (hooray!).

We’re going to have to get used to this, aren't we? By “this” we mean native Android L apps being extracted from Google's developer preview shared to the Android-using world for “testing”. One of those apps is Android L's keyboard, recently extracted from a system dump and made available by flashing it onto your rooted device. And what do you know, now it has also arrived via an apk installer for non-rooted devices. (yay!)